Q0680
“If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha” — Linji (Record of Linji)
Verified English quotation. Primary source: Record of Linji (Burton Watson translation). Theme: autonomy.
English
If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha; if you meet a patriarch, kill the patriarch; if you meet an arhat, kill the arhat.
Source and attribution
The archive attributes this English wording to Record of Linji (Burton Watson translation) and files it under Zen Buddhism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.
About Linji Yixuan
Linji Yixuan appears in this archive through verified English quotations associated with the Zen Buddhism tradition. Biographical certainty varies by figure and text; where the “author” is a scripture or school anthology, read the name as a traditional attribution rather than a modern individual biography.
Interpretation
The "killing" is directed at attachments, not persons — and in the Record of Linji it targets Buddhist attachments specifically: masters, sutras, stages of attainment, the Buddha-image itself. Linji's students leaned on these as proxies for seeing, so his shock line severs the dependency. The positive teaching sits nearby in the same record: "wherever you are, make yourself master" — the provocation and the autonomy are one instruction. Later Chan tradition read "Buddha" here as any authority held outside one's own examination.
Why it matters
The criterion transfers beyond religion: any method, teacher, or framework you lean on instead of looking becomes a Buddha to kill. The test is not rebellion but whether your own judgment is now doing the work the borrowed authority was doing.
Concepts in this quote
- Autonomy
- Autonomy appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat autonomy as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.
- Awakening
- Awakening appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat awakening as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.
- Critique
- Critique appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat critique as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.
How to cite this quotation
APA: Linji Yixuan. (n.d.). If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha; if you meet a patriarch, kill the patriarch; if you meet an arhat, kill the arhat. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0680
MLA: Linji Yixuan. “If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha;….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0680.
Chicago: Linji Yixuan. “If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha;….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0680.
Frequently asked questions
What is the source of the quotation “If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha;…”?
The passage is attributed to Linji Yixuan, Record of Linji (Burton Watson translation). The archive attributes this English wording to Record of Linji (Burton Watson translation) and files it under Zen Buddhism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.
What does Linji Yixuan mean by autonomy?
Across 4 recurring voices here (notably Seneca and Mary Wollstonecraft), autonomy is framed through Stoicism and Feminist Philosophy. Some passages define autonomy; others warn how it fails; still others relocate it inside habit, community, or language. This passage enters that discussion through autonomy, awakening, critique.